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Stress tends to trigger the fight, flight, or flee response which is supposed to be an emergency state which lasts for only a short time. When there is not a short-term emergency requiring a physical response then the state can last for a long time. It may also be triggered repeatedly over a long period of time. When this happens, negative symptoms including pain, headaches, cardiovascular problems, and insomnia can result.
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Although more people are now interested in mind body techniques like meditation, mindfulness, and yoga, there is still a great lack of clarity as to what the real effects of these techniques are. It is also often difficult to know if a person practicing a technique is doing it correctly or getting the maximum benefit they can from it.
Several months ago, I was at a university in New York city visiting a meditation group. The two people who were leading the group were interested in using EEG biofeedback equipment to measure the brainwave activity of people who were meditating. They were interested in comparing the EEG activity of a novice meditator with that of a very experienced one. This is one example of how technology can be used in combination with mind body techniques. The idea was to see if there is a difference in what is going on in the brain while a person is meditating and does that vary depending on their experience level.
Mental health symptoms and solutions are being openly discussed more than ever. Most days that I turn on the news I hear at least one story related to mental health. Just today I heard a report about three separate people who were survivors or a relative of a survivor of a school shooting who committed suicide. We often hear reports of the devastation across the country related to abuse of opioid drugs. Concussions caused by car accidents, slip and falls, sports injuries cause memory loss, behavior and mood changes as well as other problems.
The American Psychological Association administers a program to provide credits for psychologists that are required by some states to maintain their licenses. There are some topics like ethics, that might seem not to be very interesting to some people but are important and required. There are also other topics that psychologists might find of personal interest like learning a new skill or testing method.
Let’s face it, drugs are not the best answer to all medical conditions. No matter what the symptom, there seems to be a medication to treat it. Whether it is indigestion, acid reflux, insomnia, anxiety, depression, hypertension, or headaches, there is a pill for it. For the most part, these drugs only treat the symptoms temporarily. They usually are not getting to the cause of the problem or stopping the symptoms permanently.
